The Supreme Court ruled North Carolina's congressional maps were drawn based on race

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May 22, 2017 11:15 AM EDT

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that North Carolina lawmakers considered race when attempting to maximize Republicans' advantage drawing congressional maps after the 2010 Census, USA Today reported.

The ruling is the latest decision by the Supreme Court against the excessive consideration of race in redistricting.

This ruling upheld a decision in federal district court that got rid of the state's 1st and 12th congressional districts after it was determined lawmakers had packed black voters into them.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper released a statement on the decision via social media.

Justice Elena Kagan, who wrote the decision, said that the 1st district "produced boundaries amplifying divisions between blacks and whites," as well as that the 12th, "race, not politics, accounted for the district's reconfiguration."

"Partisan gerrymandering is always unsavory, but that is not the issue here. The issue is whether District 12 was drawn predominantly because of race. The record shows that it was not," wrote Justice Samuel Alito.

In a mammoth ruling, #SCOTUS finds that two North Carolina congressional districts — 1 and 12 — are unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.